Politics and Society in Modern Israel: Myths and Reality (review)

Book Reviews 171 Politics and Society in Modern Israel: Myths and Reality, by Adam Garfinkle. , Armonk, NY: W. E. Sharpe, 1997. 32:2 pp. $24.95 (p). This is a very successful introduction t9 society, politics, and govemment in contemporary Israel. While it is carefully and accurately researched, its intended audience is not I the specialist on Israel or the modem Middle East, but the undergraduate student and attentive adult reader with a serious ititerest in learning about present-day Israel. The author is a journalist and scholar, executive editor ofthe National Interest, and director of the Middle East Council of the Fon;ign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. The author begins with a panoraJic survey of Jewish history, culminating in the , Zionist movement and the dramatic transition from Yishuv to the modem Jewish I commonwealth. He then traces the rapid evolution and expansion of Jewish society and I manifestations of the tensions that hav.e beset that society-between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Orthodox and secular, expansionists and moderates; and between Jews and Arabs within Israel, in the 1967 Occup~ed Territories and the Palestinian diaspora, and in the greater Arab world. He then analyzes and evaluates the current political economy, especially the persistence ofthe state-"1anaged and -guided economy. He follows with an excellent description of the main Israeli political and govemmental processes and institutions, contrasting them for the !benefit of American readers with comparable elements ofthe U.S. polity. This is foll9wed by an essay on the complexities ofIsrael's foreign policy and efforts of this sniall, beleaguered state to achieve security and I acceptance in an international environ¢ent that has been often less than friendly. In this context special attention is devoted to ithe critical relationship with the United States. The fmal chapter focuses, overop,imistically as it appears to this reviewer, on the emergence ofa peace settlement between Israel, the Palestinians, and the surrounding Arab states; and the implications of ihese developments for the "normalization" of Israeli life under conditions of relaxe,d tensions and unexpected material prosperity. Relations between Israelis and the Jew~sh diaspora, notably in Russia, Western Europe, and North America, command the aut~or's special concern. Projecting current trends, he concludes that assirnilationist procdses throughout the diaspora, especially in North America, will reduce the numbers and the political efficacy of diaspora Jewry and that I the next century will consequently shift the center of Jewish life and survival to Israel. Thus, the nineteenth-century Zionistidream of a revived and invigorated center of Jewish life in its ancient homeland will be realized during the twenty-first century, while the declining diaspora that su~tained Jewish survival for two millennia will , increasingly look to Israel for its cultUral inspiration and support. A standard expectation ofreviewers is that they will identify and dilate on a book's failures and shortcomings. I find litt~e to criticize in this remarkably compact, well balanced, carefully researched, and clearly written treatment of a very complex theme. Other scholars might have been less committed than this author to orthodox market 172 SHOFAR Spring 1998 Vol. 16, No.3 processes in their evaluation ofIsrael's economic policies and their consequences. More attention might have been paid to the role and status ofwomen; to higher education and cultural institutions, including their heavy debt to a devoted diaspora; to the implications of the new consumerist ethos in the emergent post-Zionist era; and to the recent transformation ofisrael's economy to one dominated by a dynamic high technology sector closely linked to American multinational firms. These, however, do not detract from the usefulness ofthis book as an introduction for serious non-specialist readers to Israeli society and government. Milton 1. Esman Department of Government Cornell University Why Syria Goes to War, by Fred Lawson. Ithaca and London: Cornell University . Press, 1996. 222 pp. $29.95. Lawson's argument is that domestic factors drive Syria's war making. I)War originates in crises of capital accumulation which cause economic decline and social conflict over the shrinking pie. 2) Spreading opposition threatens the survival of the regime which often splits over how to respond. 3) Regimes initiate aggressive foreign policies to ameliorate...